There are so many video games with open worlds. I find myself on occasion going for a virtual wander. No aim in mind. No side mission. No challenge, or Easter eggs to hunt. Just aimless virtual wandering. Driving my car, riding my bike or horse, sailing a boat, or on virtual foot. Just exploring the virtual world with no destination in mind. A kind of digital mindfulness. Bathing in the Unreal forests, swimming with the AI fish. Relaxed, calm, aimless.
Just virtual wandering.
Author: Dave VR
On being a professional
I’ve been consulting for a while. Working on my own. I miss working with other professionals. They make me up my A game each day, every day. Working as a team getting the job done. Coming in under budget meeting deadlines.
Then everything ends. Completion. End of project. We all move on to the next gig. The next contract. Maybe we’ll work with other professionals, like us. Or maybe it will be just us, alone, hired by a board, or group, or someone that you only see at the start and end of the project. A resource hired to get the job done. A lone professional. Someone with a particular set of skills and the experience to get the job done in the time and budget allocated.
It can be lonely. A new place, new people. You explore the area on lunch breaks. Go for walks, find new places to eat. Getting the steps in. Back at your desk you make progress, complete tasks, move closer to the end.
Then the end comes. You move on again to the next contract, and the next, and the next.
It can be rewarding at times, lonely at others. You take pride in your work. You complete each contract leaving happy clients behind as you move on to the next. Maybe there will be a new friend at the next, or maybe a fun team that you will be a part of. While it lasts anyway. Nothing lasts in this game so enjoy it while it does. One day there will be no more contracts.
What others are doing
Some days I catch myself thinking about what others might be doing. Looking on social media I see friends on holiday, at parties and social events, having fun, and enjoying life. Then I look at my day ahead: crossing some jobs off my to do list, a spot of gardening, playing a game with my kids. Maybe we should go out for the day? I check. They want to play on the games console, watch some TV, or play in the garden.
Shouldn’t we be doing something more exciting I think? Are we boring, or wasting our days? Our worldview is skewed by the Instagram lifestyle, the influencers, and social media gurus. Feeding us a version of the perfect life. Something to strive for. But is it reality?
It turns out my family is happy with their plans for today. The sun is out and the garden is a nice place to be, or the room with the games console. Everyone is happy and that’s the main thing.
The trick is not to measure by comparison to others, but how happy you all are. Stack the memories, the experiences sure. But the days where you just hang out at home together counts just as much as a holiday.
Dandelion and burdock
I suddenly had a thirst for dandelion and burdock. A drink I haven’t even thought about since childhood.
It was popular in 1980s England. The lemonade man used to sell it. He’d pop around with his lorry full of pop each week. You could get the usual flavours like lemonade, cola, fizzy orange. Then there was the more exotic flavours like American cream soda, and dandelion and burdock.
It tasted like cola in the same way Dr Pepper tastes like Cherry Coke. Similar, but not the same. Something slightly different giving it something extra for the taste buds to savour.
I’ve tried finding a can or bottle with no luck. Friends up north can locate some but I have yet to locate any down here. I’m not giving up though. A taste memory from my childhood needs satiating.
Keeping to schedule
I used to create a comic strip years ago. I had deadlines to meet. A number of strips to create each week. It became tiring, not fun. I eventually stopped. Doing something to a deadline is work. Creativity should be fun. These mini articles, blog entries, brain dumps, or whatever you want to call them are written for me. If anyone else reads them or finds even one of them remotely useful, then great, but essentially I write them for me. There is no schedule I follow, I just write them and submit. The software organises them and releases them one a day. When there are gaps it’s because the softare has caught up with the backlog. Maybe there was nothing I wanted to write about for a bit. And That’s ok. Schedules are for work and I write for fun.
As long as you can
I was watching the classic movie Gleaming the Cube starring Christian Slater as a skateboarder. It’s a cool movie, you should check it out if you haven’t already*. When I first watched it I wanted an underground den like his friend in the movie.
I learned much later that the actual skateboarding was performed by Tony Hawks. I saw Tony on YouTube recently trying to perform one of his old tricks. He was in his 50s.
This got me thinking.
How long can you do something that you loved doing when you were young, but becomes harder as you age, or is considered not something one does when older, such as skateboarding?
My answer: As long as you can!
If you love something and it brings you joy, why not keep on doing it regardless of what others think? Keep on doing it until your body and mind will no longer let you. Ollie that skateboard, ride that BMX, surf the waves, rollerblade, skoot, and do whatever floats your boat until you no longer can.
Not everything is forever, so enjoy it as long as you can.
*Also check out Pump up the Volume.
You don’t know until you ask
You don’t know until you ask. That was advice from my mother, and her mother. Yet I’m always afraid to ask. What if they say no? Well, that is always a possibility. It’s a 50-50 chance. Yes or no.
So I’ve started asking. You never know, right? And so far the odds have been good. It’s mostly a yes, or an ok if. The latter requiring something to get it to a yes. Never anything that is much effort. It’s rarely been a no.
So now I ask. Politely of course. As you never know until you ask.
Being a picky completionist
I’m being a picky completionist. I don’t complete everything. I used to. But I soon found that life can get in the way, and it’s way shorter than you think.
Nowadays I complete what I enjoy. The rest can stay unfinished. I may return to it at a later date to pick at it, to play with it a little, to savour it for a moment. But essentially if I’m not fully enjoying it I’ll leave it unfinished.
And I’m ok with that.
If I am fully enjoying something then I’ll complete it. Depending on how much I’m enjoying it, and my level of willpower at the time, I’ll devour it, or ration myself. It will depend on the quantity I know is available. This applies to books, TV shows and movies, video games, and music.
I tend to be a picky completionist.
Finding something to read
Finding something to read can be hard. If fiction, it has to entertain me, and within the first few chapters. After that I struggle. I’ll make it to maybe chapter 7, then I’ll bin the book. Well, give it to charity. For non-fiction if it doesn’t grip me in the first few chapters I’ll flick through it looking for any nuggets of wisdom. I may even skeed it. A personal blend of skim and speed reading. Skimming through the book speed reading the bits I find interesting, if any.
It’s a form of ADHD, but one born out of the modern world. A mixture of information overload and impatience. I am old enough now to have calculated how many books I can read in my remaining lifetime given my age and the available leisure time that I am happy to dedicate to reading. The number is not as high as I would like it to be, so I tend to be picky. If the book isn’t well written I’ll quickly move on. I donate a lot of books to charity.
I listen to podcasts while I multitask. If I hear a book recommendation that sounds interesting, I’ll make a note of it. Same goes for recommendations from friends, colleagues, TV, radio, and other literature. I have a reading wishlist and occasionally I’ll buy when the price is low. I never sell, I shelve or donate.
I used to have two or three books on the go, max. Never the same subject and only one fiction. Otherwise I’ll get literature crossover. At the time of writing I have eight books I’m reading. None are gripping. I’m either skeeding or taking forever to get through them. It started at three, but then I was bored and gave another from my to read pile a chance. It failed so I tried another, and another. Now there’s eight. At what point do you admit you have a problem?
I do love to read. But as I get older, finding something good to read gets harder.
Writing just for fun
I like writing just for fun.
This is practice for me.
I don’t profess to be a good writer.
I’m self taught.
It shows.
I’m not making any money doing this.
It’s a sort of digital therapy.
I’m writing just for fun.
And practice.
I didn’t do well in language and writing at school.
But I like words.
And I like reading.
Words can be calming.
When not angry words.
Words can help you make sense of things.
To understand something well, explain it to others.
With words.
Writing just for fun.